Perpetual Notion Machine

Tonight on Perpetual Notion Machine host Emily Morris talks with Sanjay Limaye. Sanjay is a Distinguished Scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Space Science and Engineering Center who studies what is absorbing sunlight on our neighbor planet Venus. We discuss the possibility of life for extremophile bacteria in its clouds, what else we’re looking for in space, how Venus’s history relates to climate change, and what a couple of our favorite sci-fi authors would think about life on Venus.

Sanjary recently curated a series of articles for Astrobiology that all have to do with the potential for life on Venus. You can find all those fascinating papers here.

‘This was my favorite interview yet for PNM. I hope you enjoy it.’ – Emily

Photo by SIMON LEE on Unsplash.

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Coral reefs cover only 1% of the ocean, but they’re essential for healthy ocean ecosystems, and for protecting us on land from damage from the impact of waves. According to a review by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reefs in the US provide an estimated 1.75 billion dollars in ecosystem services, including protection from storm surges, fisheries, and employment from recreational use. However, coral reefs across the world are under threat of damage to their skeletons by ocean water that’s becoming more acidic due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Joining us on PNM to discuss some new findings on how corals build their skeletons is Dr. Pupa Gilbert, professor in the Department of Physics at UW-Madison. Her study on coral skeleton formation discussed in this interview is available at the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Gilbert and colleagues also have a new paper out this month proposing a model for the evolution of CaCO3 biomineralization across the animal tree of life. For further reading on other physics topics, Pupa also has a textbook “Physics in the arts”, which recently won a McGuffey Longevity award.

 

Image: Pupa Gilbert

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COVID-19 has required us to stay at home and not socialize with people in groups. This self-imposed isolation has lead to mental and emotional stress. But this has also lead to more eating and less exercise. So, tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine looks into metabolism, the system of processing food for energy. Dale Schoeller, Emeritus Professor in nutrition sciences at UW-Madison, explains to PNM’er Dennis Shaffer that metabolism is a complex system that includes not only the digestive system, but also the endocrine systems, which controls and regulates the metabolic rate.

Of all the foods that we eat, metabolism breaks it down into three compounds that the cells in the body use for energy: fatty acids, glucose, and amino acids. But keep in mind, the energy used by the body goes not just for physical activity. There’s keeping the heart beating and blood flowing, breathing in and exhaling air, cognition for thought and learning, sensory ability, and a host of other functions. And also, another form of energy is heat to maintain a consistent body temperature.

Diet (what you eat) and exercise (physical activity) appear to be the best way of burning fat and losing weight. And perhaps the best measure of this is through the number of calories.

Also, metabolism can be affected by sleep. Dale was the lead author of a study that was published in February where the subjects were able to increase the amount of sleep by about an hour and half each night. And without any change in diet, they managed to reduce their food intake by an average of 270 calories a day. For more information on the study, check out this press release from UChicago.

And a webpage from the Cleveland Clinic has a nice explanation of metabolism.

Image Courtesy: zuzyusa from Pixabay

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On tonight’s episode of Perpetual Notion Machine host Emily Morris talks with Emily Spilman from the Environmental Working Group. We talk about the ingredients in personal care and cleaning products and get you ready to judge a cosmetic by its cover.

Check out the EWG website here.

And their Skin Deep database here.

Their guide to healthy cleaning products is here.

And look for the EWG logo on safe, verified products, with more information on that here.

Lastly WikiHow to the rescue — make your own super safe cleaners right at home with this 2-ingredient vinegar and water recipe.

Remember we’re still in our winter pledge drive. WORT is 80% supporter funded. You can make a donation any time of the year by going to wortfm.org. Thank you listeners for your support! We appreciate you all year round.

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Welcome to this special edition of the Perpetual Notion Machine for our 25th Anniversary! We took a break from our normal guest interview format to talk all about community science outreach and follow-up on our shows of the past quarter-century.

Hosts Robert Monthey, Emily Morris, Patrick Sajbel, Dennis Shaffer, and Serena Zhao were in the studio to bring new news on our shows about chess, volcanoes, climate change, psychadelics, plastic recycling, environmental DNA, and confirmation bias, and with guests Bassam Shakhashiri, Mary Roach, John Bates, and so many other experts, writers, and scientists.

WORT needs your support! We’re in the middle of our winter pledge drive and you can still make a pledge by calling 608-256-2001 or by going to wortfm.org. Let us know what science topics you want to hear about and we’ll feature them on upcoming episodes. Thank you for your continued support of the station’s programming, and for listening to your friends on the Perpetual Notion Machine team.

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Our favorite breads and pastries have arrived at their distinctive flavors and textures through years of experimentation in the kitchen, finding the right ingredients and sequence of handling to get to the right crumb or bite. With modern food science research, growers, manufacturers, and cooks can hone in on the building blocks of ingredients that do exactly what they’re looking for. Bakery science is one example of how understanding food chemistry can help fine-tune beloved recipes and also forge technologies to develop new foods.

On today’s PNM, guest Audrey Girard guides us through wheat varieties optimized for different foods, why your whole-wheat bread doesn’t rise up as fluffy as white bread can, how polyphenols can give plant-based meats a meatier bite, and more.

Dr. Girard is an assistant professor of food science at UW Madison, where her lab researches protein chemistry.

 

Image: FranHogan, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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Ever wonder why some people don’t believe the truth or facts, even when the evidence supporting it is overwhelming? It’s like what they believe is more important than the truth. Take those that don’t believe vaccinations work, or might even be more harmful than the disease itself, and this in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Or how about suddenly believing that elections are rigged, even when for years they knew elections were run fairly and accurately. So, why is it that people’s beliefs outweigh reality? Is there a scientific or psychological answer?

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine welcomes UW-Madison psychologist Markus Brauer to the program. In a conversation with PNM’s Dennis Shaffer, Markus explains confirmation bias, or the tendency people have to embrace information that support their beliefs and reject information that contradicts their beliefs. Confirmation bias seems like a contradiction in itself, since all human beings should have the capacity to think, reason, and process information. But being human is partly why confirmation bias occurs, which has both positive and negative effects.

Also, one good reason that creates confirmation bias has to do with Markus’ field of research – group dynamics and inter-group processes. As social animals, humans want to be in groups where we are welcomed and accepted, and give us self-esteem. Because of this need, we may fall victim to the group’s false beliefs.

For more information on confirmation bias, check out this Britannica webpage and this webpage from Simply Psychology.

And here’s a really good article from the New Yorker on Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds, which I hope it’s OK to post.

Feature Image courtesy: Wonderlane via Flickr

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The world’s most powerful space telescope launched on Christmas Day and is now positioned a million miles from earth. Host Patrick Sajbel is joined by aerospace engineer Thomas Harkins to talk about the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Harkins brings a unique behind-the-scenes view at Mission Control, from the launch through the stages of commissioning.

Note: As discussed in the interview, here is the video and dramatic view as the James Webb Space Telescope separates from its Ariane 5 rocket, as viewed from the rocket

Interested in more the science of the JWST? Check out the Perpetual Notion Machine episode from December.

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Harmful algal blooms can result in toxins in lakes that result in fish kills and disrupt access for recreation and other economic activities. Although there is a hypothesis that increasing eutrophication and climate change lead to more severe algal blooms, our guest Grace Wilkinson reports in a recent article that algal blooms in 323 lakes in the US have variable outcomes in algal blooms, with no clear increase in blooms across lakes.

Join us as we discuss causes and consequences of algal blooms, the challenges and rewards of long-term ecological monitoring, and the impacts of restoration efforts and what communities can do to protect our lakes.

Dr. Grace Wilkinson is an assistant professor at the UW Madison Center for Limnology, where her lab researches patterns and controls on aquatic ecosystem function. There will be an upcoming opportunity for volunteers to help monitor water quality in the Madison area. More information will be available at https://limnology.wisc.edu/ in the coming months.

 

Image courtesy of: Smaack, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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Comedian Jackie Kashian is out with her sixth comedy album, this time written during pandemic lockdown and perfected over countless Zoom shows. Released in fall 2021, Stay-Kashian touches on Jackie’s observations on flirting and gender, to useful advice from her father, to her very uncomfortable discovery on a hotel room floor.

A stand-up comedian since the mid-’80s, Jackie Kashian has appeared widely on television and tours internationally. She is also host of The Dork Forest podcast — where she invites significant figures to tell us about their dorkdoms. She has a second podcast about the comedy world called the Jackie and Laurie Show, co-hosted with fellow stand-up comic Laurie Kilmartin.

A native of south Milwaukee and an alum of UW-Madison, Jackie Kashian has returned briefly to the Badger State during our coldest month of the year. She joins us ahead of several performances at the Comedy on State – two shows on Friday, January 28 and Saturday, January 29. Tickets and more information are available here.